Faan Fiction 1930-2020: an exploration by Rob Hansen

 

Release date: June 1, 2021

Subgenre: Anthology, Criticism, Fan fiction

 

About Faan Fiction 1930 - 2020: an exploration:

 

In this combined critique and anthology, Rob Hansen discusses the phenomenon of fan fiction (in the fannish fanzine sense) with a particular focus on the UK. His commentary is interspersed with many examples from such diverse fan writers as John Berry, C.S. Youd (John Christopher), Leroy Kettle, David Langford, Mark Plummer, Bob Shaw, Ian Sorensen, James White, Walt Willis – and Rob Hansen himself, including previously unpublished work. There are several surprises.

First published as an Ansible Editions ebook for the TAFF site on 1 June 2021. Cover artwork adapted from Rob Hansen’s cover for his fanzine Epsilon #7, July 1981. Approximately 61,000 words.

Excerpt:

 

One aspect of fandom only lightly touched on by me in Then was fan fiction. By which, of course, I mean fiction about fans and/or fandom. This is a thread that has been woven through SF fandom since it began, enduring almost to the present day, and so is worthy of consideration in that light. I’ll be looking at the people who wrote it and all its various forms and the purposes to which they were put. Inevitably, the quality of the writing varies wildly, with that of those who later went on to write professionally usually being a cut above the rest.

A surprising amount of fan fiction is already available in various Ansible Editions ebooks. Where I reference these I’ve put [AE] after them to indicate that fact and a full list of same can be found at the rear of this volume. Similarly [fan] appears after those available at fanac.org, and [fia] for those available on my own website at fiawol.org.uk. Where possible the pieces of fan fiction reprinted herein to illustrate various types and forms – all by UK fans – were specifically chosen from those not already available. As a result, most will be things the majority of readers won’t have encountered before.

Free at

Ansible editions

About Rob Hansen:

Rob Hansen is a British fanwriter, artist, and editor active since 1975. Hansen is a major British fan historian, publishing Then, a fanzine and website devoted to fan history; a much expanded book and ebook edition appeared in 2016 as Then: Science Fiction Fandom in the UK 1930-1980. He has edited several further fanhistorical ebooks for Ansible Editions,

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Slow Pint Glass by Bob Shaw

Release date: August 30, 2020

Subgenre: Nonfiction, Humor, Fanwriting

About Slow Pint Glass: 

Slow Pint Glass is a huge collection of Bob Shaw’s other fan and fan-adjacent writing not already included in The Enchanted Duplicator (1954 with Walt Willis; much reprinted; TAFF ebook May 2015), The Serious Scientific Talks (TAFF ebook November 2019) and The Full Glass Bushel (TAFF ebook June 2020).

Cover art by Jim Barker, a July 2020 reworking of his memorial piece for Bob Shaw first published in Tyne Capsule (March 2015; TAFF ebook September 2019).

The collection, compiled by Rob Jackson and David Langford, contains 167,000 words of fine fanwriting – more than The Serious Scientific Talks and The Full Glass Bushel put together – ranging from the early 1950s to the 1990s. First published as an Ansible Editions ebook for the TAFF site on 30 August 2020.

 

Excerpt:

 

From the Introduction by David Langford

Most of the humorists for which Bob shows admiration in the articles that follow – Patrick Campbell, Stephen Leacock, S.J. Perelman, James Thurber, Mark Twain – cultivated an air of bemusement at the vagaries of the weird world we live in. This was an attitude that Bob himself could always carry off brilliantly. What other writer, struggling with deadlines, would find himself fatally distracted by a noisy invasion of hot air balloons? Or be a fascinated eye-witness on the utterly memorable night when Brian Aldiss broke the bed? Or, in a perfectly ordinary visit to the loo at an SF convention, become entangled in the embarrassing toils of the Penis Fly Trap? See “The Writer’s Year”, “Once Upon a Tyne” and “Wetfoot in the Head” respectively.

 

Free at the TAFF Website

(Donations to TAFF appreciated)

 

About Bob Shaw: 

 

Bob Shaw was a fan, fan writer, fan artist, novelist, structural engineer, aircraft designer, and journalist from Northern Ireland, noted for his originality and wit. He was one of the Wheels of IF and a great and influential fan. 

He won the Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer in 1979 and 1980. His short story "Light of Other Days" was a Hugo Award nominee in 1967, as was his novel The Ragged Astronauts in 1987.

Originally trained as a structural engineer, Bob Shaw worked as an aircraft designer for Short and Harland, then as science correspondent for The Belfast Telegraph and then as publicity officer for Vickers Shipbuilding before starting to write full-time. During the Troubles, Shaw and his family moved from Northern Ireland to England, where he produced the majority of his work.

He had nearly lost his sight through illness and suffered migraine-induced visual disturbances throughout his life. He went to the US to live with his second wife, then returned to England in the last months of his life. Shaw died of cancer on 11 February 1996.

He was well-loved and sought after wearing both his fan and pro hats. Professionally, he published his first story in 1951, and is best known for "Light of Other Days" (Astounding Science Fiction, Aug 1966), the story that introduced the concept of slow glass. Orbitsville and its two sequels deal with the discovery of a habitable shell completely surrounding a star, and the consequences for humanity. The first in this trilogy won him the 1976 British SF Association Award.

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